ECC okays urea, wheat import

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has granted approval for importing 300,000 tons of urea fertilizer at a cost of $520 per metric tons.

In a meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar here on Friday, the ECC approved a proposal of the Ministry of Commerce to suspend the date of implementation of IPO 2022 regarding import of timber and wood till March 31, 2023. The ECC allowed the TCP to proceed ahead with the lowest offer received from M/s Makhdoom Logistics Services @ $520/MT for import of 300,000 MT of urea fertilizer. It allowed the TCP to import 0.80MT of wheat through open tendering or G2G basis. It granted permission to provide additional supply of imported wheat to provinces from the Passco stock.

The ECC approved the lowest bid offered by M/s Aston FFI DMCC and M/s Fertile Pvt ltd @ $373/MT for 120,000 MT in the 6th international wheat tender 2022. It also approved a technical supplementary grant of Rs 333.915 million for the current financial year in favour of the Ministry of Interior.

Federal Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Murtaza Mehmood, Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik, SAPM on Finance Tariq Bajwa, federal secretaries and senior officers attended the meeting.

The Ministry of Commerce presented a summary on suspension of import conditions contained in the Import Policy 2022 with regard to import of timber and wood. It was informed that the All Pakistan Timber Traders Association (Aptta) had requested extension in the date of implementation of conditions of import permit. The federal government subsequently suspended the operation of import policy provisions till August 31, 2022. The Aptta has again approached with the same request to support the wood business sector.

To facilitate the import of wood and timber, the ECC directed the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) of the Ministry of National Food Security & Research to review conditions for import of wood and timber and bring them in conformity with the international best practices so that the import of wood and timber would not be subjected to unnecessary and cumbersome procedures. However, to address the immediate concerns of the wood and timber industry, the ECC approved the proposal to suspend the date of implementation of IPO 2022 regarding import of timber and wood till March 31, 2023.

The Ministry of National Food Security & Research tabled a summary regarding permission for the import of 0.80 MMT of wheat through the TCP. It was submitted that the ECC on 9-5-2022 allowed the TCP to import 3 MMT of wheat and directed devising import modalities. The modalities were then devised and the TCP was allowed to import 1.00 MMT of specified milling wheat through international tendering process. Later, public wheat stocks were re-verified by the committee which reported that the actual shortfall would be 2.60 MMT, instead of 3 MMT. Therefore, the TCP was allowed to import only 0.80 MMT through open tendering as well as G2G basis out of the remaining 1.60 MMT on 06-09-2022.

In view of aforementioned, the ECC approved the proposal and allowed the TCP to arrange import of the remaining quantity of 0.80 MMT through open tendering or through G2G arrangement, before harvesting of the new crop. Further, the ECC directed the ministry concerned to frame and submit a logistic plan within 15 days.

The Ministry of National Food Security & Research submitted another summary regarding requests by the Food Departments of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan for additional supply of imported wheat from the Passco stock. It was told that the Ministry of National Food Security & Research prepared a list of allocations of the recipient agencies at the start of each food year and simultaneously local and imported wheat was supplied. Considering the urgent demand of the Food Departments, subject to the approval of provincial cabinets, the ECC granted permission to provide 1.00 MMT of imported wheat from the Passco stock to Punjab (0.50 MMT), Sindh (0.30 MMT) and KP (0.20 MMT) with full cost and incidentals of the Passco. Further, 0.04 MMT of local and imported wheat @ 50:50 ratio with full cost and incidentals of the Passco may be provided to Balochistan.

The ECC discussed another summary of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research regarding an urgent advice related to award of the 6th international wheat tender-2022 opened on October 26, 2022 for 500,000 MT. Keeping in view the results of the tender, the ECC approved the lowest bid offered @ $373.00/MT for 380,000 MT on CFR bulk in Karachi. The ECC approved a technical supplementary grant of Rs 333.915 million in the current financial year 2022-23 in favour of the Interior Ministry, enabling the Frontier Constabulary to establish anti-riot units comprising 2000 personnel.